Ghost Hunters
by Alleybat
Summary: On his third day of school a kid in class tells frightening stories of a ghost within the school. Dick would be quick to ignore him if Barbara Gordon hadn't suggested that they find the ghost for themselves.


"I'm telling you I saw it! It was all see through and it looked like its eyes had been gouged out!"

A group of kids congregated in the back of the classroom gathered around one boy who was telling his story loud enough for the whole class to hear. According to him, one night after his club activities, his mom was late in picking him up and he had to wait inside the school. There he saw some kind of ghostly entity that attacked him. Listening to his tale you'd think he just barely escaped with his life.

"That's a lie; everyone knows there's no such thing as ghosts…" A redhead in the front of the classroom piped up. Dick recognized her immediately. Her name was Barbara Gordon; she was the daughter of the police commissioner and was assigned as his guide through the school on his first day. Although he never spoke to her the whole time, she was really nice and didn't complain about taking the new kid under her wing. Of course, his first day was only a couple of days ago and he still hadn't made any attempt to talk to anyone.

The Headmaster of Gotham Academy's Elementary school made it very clear to Dick that he spoke horribly, but he couldn't help it. English wasn't his first language, but he always thought it was passable enough, Alfred and Bruce understood him just fine when he talked. Although, it probably didn't help his case that his English had a bunch of mixed in Romani words; "circus slang" the headmaster had called it. But, ever since his meeting with the headmaster he was careful not to say too much out of fear of being made fun of.

"What do you know about it Gordon? You weren't there!" the boy sneered at her. Everyone's attention was now between the loudmouth boy in the back, and the fiery redhead calling his bluff.

"I didn't need to be there!" Barbara countered, "There is no such thing as ghosts and I can prove it."

"Oh yeah?" The boy had a malicious grin on his face now. "What? Are you going to do sneak in after hours and stake out? Do you really think your Dad will let you do that?"

Barbara flushed a little at the boy's taunting, but she was not going to back down.

"I can sneak out, my Dad leaves for work every night at six, he'll be out the rest of the night so I'll be here by six thirty if anyone is man enough to go on a ghost hunt."

Her challenge to the room made the rest of the fourth graders reel back. It seemed they were perfectly okay with listening to the loudmouth boy's story about ghosts, but the prospect of going on a full on ghost hunt was too much to consider. Some of the boys in class mumbled about their parents not letting them out of the house after dark and others talked about how a ghost hunt would be awesome, but they had violin lessons or something or another.

"_They're all just making excuses…"_ Dick thought to himself, _"They're too scared to go, but they don't want anyone else to think that."_

Barbara looked around the room for anyone to volunteer to join her ghost hunt. Her resolve was weakening as everyone she looked at averted her gaze or just shook their heads in protest. Everyone but one.

"Dick!" Barbara looked pointedly at him. "Do you wanna go? Ghost hunting that is?"

Dick couldn't help but sit for a minute with his mouth open. Everyone's eyes were on him now. Barbara's desperate plea for a companion in her adventure had been unanswered so far, and Dick could see her resolve wavering.

Dick started to speak but the headmaster's words still echoed in his head. So he just nodded.

"You will!" Barbara was beaming now. "Great! Meet me here at six thirty, oh and bring a camera!"

Before anyone could respond to the news of the new ghost hunting team the bell rang and their teacher came in calling for quiet.

"How was school today Master Dick?" Alfred asked him closing the door to the Rolls Royce behind him.

"Oh, it was fine I guess," Dick said. Alfred was trying really hard to help Dick adjust to his new life and he really appreciated it, but Dick really didn't have anything interesting to report.

"Just fine?" Alfred questioned as they sat at a red light. "I would think school would be a new experience for you, meeting people your own age, making friends, getting into all sorts of shenanigans."

"Well…" Dick began. He wanted to tell Alfred about what the headmaster had told him and maybe even ask for some lessons in proper English, but- did he say shenanigans.

"Actually speaking of shenanigans Mr. Pennyworth…" and Dick told Alfred about what happened before school.

"Ghost hunting, eh?" Alfred said as they made their way towards Gotham Estates. "Sounds like a splendid idea, and you're going with the pretty young lady who showed you around school on your first day?"

Dick felt himself flush a little "I never said she was pretty…."

"You didn't?" Alfred teased him "I swear we had that conversation in this very car…"

"Well, what do you think Mr. Pennyworth? Should I go, or call it off?"

"I think you shall go and have some fun, I will drive you to school tonight and we shall be there promptly at six thirty. Just remember to bring a flashlight; ghosts are afraid of the light you know." Alfred said with a wink as he pulled into Wayne manor.

Barbara waited for just the right moment, her dad always called her when he made it safely to work and that was her cue to run to the bus station. The driver knew her well; she would often go to the station to visit her dad after her homework was done, but today was different and the stop for the school was just before her usual one for the police station.

"Getting off here Barbara?" The bus driver looked at her confused.

"Uh, yeah, I'm…. meeting a friend here" Barbara said as she stepped off the bus.

The driver just shrugged and waved at her before pulling off. Barbara turned around to look at the school, it was much more looming and eerie looking with the sun setting behind it. She swallowed a lump in her throat thinking _"C'mon Dick, show up. I don't wanna go in there alone."_

Just as she started thinking he had bailed on her the fanciest car she had ever seen pulled up to the front of the school. A gentleman in a suit got out and opened the door to the back and out stepped Dick, who said something to the gentleman and started heading her direction.

"Wow," Barbara said as Dick came within earshot. "I know that Bruce Wayne is rich, but was that guy your personal valet or something?"

"Uh…" Dick started, but just decided to nod rather than explain.

"Wow," Barbara said again. "Anyway, I know a way into the school, follow me."

Dick followed Barbara's lead to the back of the school where their classroom was.

"They usually lock these windows after classes are over, but I snuck back in and unlocked one after gymnastics practice today." She said triumphantly and one of the class windows pushed open on her command. The two of them climbed in easily and looked around their dark, empty classroom.

"I didn't think it would be so dark in here." Barbara said wandering towards the door to the hall, "It'll get even darker as the sun sets won't it?"

Dick reached into his hoodie pocket and produced two small LED flashlights that he had brought from the manor.

"Oh thank you!" She said as she took the one Dick was holding out for her. "You're so prepared even though I forced you to come with me. But that guy is always telling stories and scaring the younger kids at school, and well…. I just wanted to put an end to the rumors of there being a ghost in the school."

"No, it's alright," Dick said before he could catch himself.

"Oh! So you can talk!" Barbara said looking surprised. "Everyone thought that you were mute or something."

"Mute?" Dick asked. He never thought anyone would think he was mute. It's true he hadn't really said anything while at school. But he was far from mute.

"Yeah, I dunno. I never thought you were. I know the reason you're even here is a terrible situation, I always thought you just didn't feel like talking to anyone…"

Dick looked down at his feet, the sting of his family's death was still fresh, no matter how nice Bruce and Alfred were to him, there was no way they were going to replace his family, circus or blood.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Barbara exclaimed, suddenly realizing she had just reminded him of his family's murder.

"No, no, you're fine." Dick said. "I understand that I'll have to get used to people talking about it. It's just… hard sometimes."

"You know, and I'm totally not trying to change the subject here, but you have the coolest accent I've ever heard. What kind accent is that anyway?"

"My… accent?" Dick thought for a minute. "I don't think it can be classified as anything you know of."

"Well, you grew up in a circus right? Is it some kind of circus accent?" Barbara was really intent on figuring this out.

"Um, maybe…. Romani?" Dick finally said.

"Romani? What's that? I've heard of Romanian, is that what you mean?"

"No, Romanian is totally different." Dick said correcting her. "Romani is a language and a culture of people. You probably know it better as gypsy."

"Wow, gypsy? Really? That's so cool!" Barbara said. She did seem really excited by this new information.

A quiet fell between them as they walked through the empty halls of the school.

"Do you really not believe in ghosts?" Dick finally asked Barbara after the silence grew uncomfortable.

"Of course not, it's scientifically impossible isn't it?" Barbara said immediately.

"I dunno," Dick said. "There are a lot of things out there you can't explain. The clowns in the circus used to tell me stories all the time…."

"Really? What kind of stories?" Barbara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Well, we traveled the world a lot and they would always tell me legends from the areas we were performing in."

"Like urban legends? Like the man with the hook hand?"

"Hook hand? I've never heard that one. The one I really remember is the Slender Man."

"Slender Man? What's it about?"

"Well, he originates in Germany and he's supposed to be extremely tall and thin and dressed in a black suit. The myth says that he can stretch his limbs to amazing lengths and there is even a part of his legend that says he can stretch his fingers down your throat and pull your heart out. He likes to look in windows and wander out in front of drivers on the road. He also kidnaps children, who are never seen again. No one really knows what he does with the-"

Dick cut himself off because Barbara stopped dead in her tracks.

"You said the clowns told you that story?" She said, her voice quivering.

"Yeah, they liked to tell legends around the table all the time."

"Did, did they say anything about the slender man being in America?" Barbara asked

"What, I don't think so. I think he's mostly spotted in Europe. But I don't know."

"Let's get out of here" Barbara said quickly.

"What? Why?" Dick was confused.

"Because, I'm done… we haven't seen any ghosts and I wanna visit my dad before I have to go to bed." Barbara said her voice shaking more violently.

"But-" Dick started, but he stopped because he started to hear footsteps coming down some nearby stairs.

Barbara screamed when she heard the steps and grabbed Dicks arm as tight as she could. The steps stopped for a second when she cried out but came down the stairs fast and a tall skinny figure came into the light from their flashlights.

"T-the Slender Man!" Barbara began to cry into Dick's back.

"The what now?" The figure asked. He stepped closer revealing that he was one of the night janitors. "What are you two kids doing here after dark?"

Barbara was still shaking and crying behind Dick so he had to think quickly.

"Well, see Barbara forgot something at gymnastics practice today and wanted to come get it, but she was scared to come alone so I came along."

"Well you're walking all over my clean floors, you can get it tomorrow." He said as he ushered them out the front doors.

To Dick's surprise, Alfred was still there, waiting by the Rolls Royce.

"Ah Master Dick, I see your exploits have been cut short." Alfred said cheerfully as he opened the back door of the Rolls.

Barbara had composed herself enough to mutter something about catching the bus, but Alfred insisted he drive her home. He closed the back door behind the two of them and stated talking quickly with the janitor. Presumably trying to smooth things over for them.

"Barbara…" Dick said. "I'm so sorry I scared you. If you never wanna talk to me again… I understand"

Barbara looked at him and wiped her eyes.

"No, no, I'm okay, I promise. I just wasn't expecting that kind of story, then the janitor came and… Hey you won't tell anyone will you?"

"No of course not! What I'll say is that we wandered around for a while and nothing happened; we eventually got bored and went home. That's the story I'm gonna tell."

Barbara smiled at him.

"You're a great friend." She said and hugged him.


End file.
